Neighbourhood
by evenster
Summary: 1st Lieutenant Donna Bennett is surely nothing better than Sobel, but the other new member of Easy-Company seems very likable. OC
1. Currahee

"Morning, guys!" The Lieutenant barked at the men. Although the words were friendly, the voice behind them sounded dangerous. Immediately, the men felt silent and waited what the new Lieutenant was going to tell them. But the Lieutenant just let his view wander over the men, sometimes stopped at one of them, smiling, then continued scanning all of them. Most of them felt uncomfortable, some tried to smile back, but it is always hard to return a smile that is full of hate and conviction.

"That's a woman." Luz whispered in the last row, while the Lieutenant looked at all of them. Suddenly, he, or, if Luz was right, she, stopped and turned her head a little bit. Looked directly at him. "That's right, soldier, but I'm sure Currahee will be able to appreciate your intelligence better than I can." Luz stood there, unsure what to do. "Do I speak fucking Spanish, or what? Currahee! You! Now!" The Lieutenant shouted and Luz left straight away.

"So, now after this nice interruption, we'll get some things clear. If you breath to loud, Currahee will be there to welcome you, if you grimace, Currahee will be there to welcome you, if you take any step out of the line, Currahee will be there to welcome you. So, hard question: What will happen if you act counter to my orders?" The Lieutenant pointed at Perconte. "Currahee will be there to welcome us?" There was a smile on the face of the Lieutenant which turned quickly into an evil grin.

"Wrong. I'll shoot you. Currahee, now!" Terrified Perconte turned around, and followed Luz on his way. The Lieutenant cleared his throat, and let the smile disappear again. "I am 1st Lieutenant Donna Bennett, I am here to replace 1st Lieutenant Sobel, and the last Company I worked with, tried to kill me five times. Any questions?" There was some uncomfortable movement in the group but nobody said anything.

"You seem alright, guys." A smile on her face, a smile on some faces in the group of men. "You shouldn't." All smiles fading away, including hers. "Currahee, all of you! If you meet the other two soldiers, take them with you again." The soldiers disappeared, all looking like they were planning their first murder attempts, as well.

"1st Lieutenant Donna Bennett? I am impressed." A voice from behind her said. Donna turned around and looked in the eyes of an old friend. Well, friend was a big word. "Lewis? Lewis Nixon?" Donna asked, looking at the man in front of her in surprise. But the surprise fast turned into anger. "2nd Lieutenant Nixon, why are you still here? Currahee doesn't wait for anybody." Her ex-neighbor nodded and turned around to leave. But before he was out of earshot he responded: "You have changed, little Donna."

The men, all being angry as hell, hadn't realized that another soldier had joined them. A soldier, none of them knew, a soldier which didn't look like he was supposed to be there. He had joined them in the middle of the mountain and was now running at their side, running like he belonged to them. They didn't notice him till they were back, and facing the monster called 1st Lieutenant Donna Bennett, again.

"Seems like you all survived. That's terrible. There should always be at least five deaths during the training of a new unit. Well, there's still plenty of time, I guess." With a nod of her head, she dismissed the soldiers, which all looked pretty happy about this. Only two of them stayed, the soldier nobody knew, and 2nd Lieutenant Lewis Nixon.

"What to you want Nix?" Donna asked and raised her eyebrow. "I wanted to talk. I didn't expect you, to join the army, or to meet you again. Just some friendly talking about the past." He smiled, but stopped when he saw the cold look in her eyes. "There's really no need to talk, Nix. I've got more important things to do." After he had left, Donna applied her attention the the unknown soldier. "What do you want?"

"Well, 1st Lieutenant Bennett, I could ask you the same question. But, I know what you would answer, so I am not going to ask. I only wanted to talk a little bit, you know about the good old times." Donna took a step forward, feeling like she should know this soldier. "Oh come on, is your memory really so bad?" The soldier, who had stood there the whole time with his face to the bottom, raised his head now, and smiled. But the smile was made to freeze the earth.

"You are supposed to be dead. You died six year ago, in a car accident. You are not supposed to live." Donna stuttered and took the step she just made, backwards again. "You really thought, that I would die so fast? God, I always thought you would know me, well, it seems like I have been mistaken. Well, I'm sure I have been mistaken, since I never thought that you would really go to the army." The soldier answered.

"You still didn't answer me, Jo. What are you doing here?" Donna hoped that the answer would satisfy her, but as far as she knew her opposite, it wouldn't. "I am here because I joined the army. I am nothing else than you. Well, except that I am better looking." Jo wanted to say more, but was cut off by 2nd Lieutenant Winters who had reached them.

"Ah, 2nd Lieutenant Joanne Coleman, I guess. I see you already met 1st Lieutenant Bennett. I am sorry Lieutenant that I couldn't tell you earlier but I had to run Currahee." He said, with a small nod, to Donna before he addressed Joanne again. "You are going to stay with the 1st Lieutenant, since you two are the only female officers. My sympathies." He nodded at both and turned around. "This will have consequences." Donna muttered, but then turned around to Jo.

"This won't be nice, neither for you nor for me, but I think we both have the same interest in not letting everybody know, what has happened in the past." Jo nodded. "Good. Well, you already ran Currahee so I guess you can leave now." Jo nodded again, and left Donna, with a smile on her face, which spelled trouble.

Donna looked up to Currahee, this majestic mountain, which would help her so many times and nearly bowed to it. She was sure that she could trust this freak of nature, more than any human being on this world. Because nature doesn't act out of a feeling, nature acts how it is supposed to act.

Joanne had asked her way to her shelter and was now waiting for Donna to show up. In fact, she hoped desperately that the 1st Lieutenant would show up soon, because it always took so long to wash blood out of textiles. She knife in her hand was shining brightly, and reflected her face perfectly. And was a shame, to ruin something so innocent and beautiful with the blood of a monster, but it had to be done, and it was the only way it could be done.

"I always promised you, that there would be revenge. Now it is time. It's a shame, that it took so long." Jo whispered as she stroked the blade. She had never been a very forgiving person, in her eyes the only thing you could do after something did hurt you, physically or mentally, was to do the same, or even worse, to them. That was her life motto, if you wanted to call it so.

She just sat there, on the bed and waited. That was something she had always been good at. Waiting. What a nice word, for something so simple. You just had to stay calm, and your thoughts in your mind. Because letting your thoughts drift away was the biggest mistake you could make. This would make your concentration weak. And weakness, no matter what kind of, was bad.

When she heard the footsteps which were so familiar to her, she quickly stood up and took her place next to the door. She could already smell the monster, which was walking towards its death. But something disturbed her. The presence of another pair of feet, which were walking in front of those claws, the monster called feet. And those footsteps were familiar as well, although hearing them was more calming, and nearly made her smile.

As the door was opened, she put away the knife as fast as possible and really started to smile. "Oh, come on, Donna, don't tell me that is what you always dreamed about. You always wanted to do something with people, I know, but I'm sure killing them was not what you meant, when you said so." Nixon was clearly confused by Donnas appearance, but it seemed like he was already accepting the fact that she didn't tell him the truth.

"Believe me Nix, I've got my reasons, and I'll be glad to share them with you as soon as it is time to do so. And now, please welcome your other old friend Joanne." Both, Nix and Jo, produced nothing else than a snort, about this use of the word friend. Friend was clearly the last word they would use for each other.

"Nice to see you, Jo." Nix nodded while falling down on Donnas bed. Obviously, he didn't care at all what the owner of the bed would say to this, but he had never cared about the opinion of Donna or Jo. That was probably one of the main reasons, that they could stand each other. "So, you joined the army too?" He asked, not even trying to look at her.

"Well, it's never wrong to support others by killing people, don't you think?" Nix shook his head, but a small smile appeared on his face. "I have to admit, I expected you to do something like that, although I hoped that your appearance would happen with more special effects, and less politeness." Jo nodded and sat down on her own bed. Donna was standing between those two, looking like she wanted to me anywhere except for the place where she was.

"God Donna, stop looking so afraid. We won't kill each other, at least not while you are here. We just have a nice chat, you know." Now it was on Donna to snort, but she nodded and left the shelter. But Nixon and Joanne knew that she did it with the fear to find one of them dead, when she came back.

"Now, she's going to scream at some soldiers, and make them pay for our behavior, right?" Jo asked but didn't need any answer by Nix since Donna gave it herself. "You, you and you, Currahee, now!" She shouted at three poor souls, right after she had left the other two.

* * *

"Who is this?" Guarnere asked, while they were all watching someone running up Currahee for the third time in a row. "I've got no idea, but whoever it is, he must have really annoyed the Lieutenant." Liebgott answered and shook his head in disbelieve. "At least she didn't shoot him." Webster noted and tried to tell who it was. "I would have preferred getting shot, than running Currahee three times in a row." Luz added, and they all continued watching the soldier running in fearful anticipation. Who knew who would be next 1st Lieutenant Bennett would make run Currahee so many times.

"You can stop being scared guys. This is, Lieutenant Bennett." A voice from behind them explained and laughed a bit. "By the way, I am 2nd Lieutenant Joanne Coleman, an old friend of the 1st Lieutenant. At least, she would say so, I would prefer other words to explain our relationship." The soldiers all nodded, since no one could imagine Bennett having friends, and introduced themselves as well.

"Guys, she will run that stupid mountain till she is dead, and when she comes back I wouldn't like to be the one she sees first, so I would give all of you an advice. Go, and hide till she is in better mood." Jo explained, and the soldiers all nodded, totally able to imagine what would happen if the 1st Lieutenant would met them.

"But this would mean to hide forever, so just don't face her till she wants you to see her." The 2nd Lieutenant added and the ice, which had never really existed, was broken, because when a 2nd Lieutenant makes fun of a 1st Lieutenant in front of normal soldiers, is that a sign that this Lieutenant is a really nice person. Or at least, to his soldiers.

After they had all left, Jo continued looking at the silhouette which was running up Currahee again. It was really surprising how fit Donna was, although it was probably not the best idea to use this fitness for running up a mountain, while it was starting to rain. "You'll catch your death, little Donna." Jo muttered and really hoped for it. When Donna would kill herself, she hadn't to soil her reputation as a nice person.

"You shouldn't say something like this, with so much pleasure." Nix responded and stepped next to Jo. "You know that this is exactly how I am feeling." Jo answered and took a glimpse of his outline. He had grown, and really looked like a man now. "That's not quite true. I guess that this is how you are feeling, but I can't know, since neither she nor you told me the whole story." "You are really philosophical, Nix. What happened to the alcohol?" He smiled and shook his head. "I don't think that this matters right now. Why don't you just tell me? I can tell, that you want to see her dead, but I don't know why." Now, Jo was the one who shook her head. "I'm not good at telling stories Nix. Ask Donna, when is done running Currahee like she's insane."

It had started to rain, while they were holding their small conversation, but it bothered neither the two nor Donna who was still running. "She's really going to kill herself." Nix muttered and turned around. "But I am not going to hold her back this time." Then he left Jo, who continued watching Donna running.

"Lieutenant Coleman?" Winters had appeared next to her, looking unsure whether it was intelligent or not to disturb her. Her only response was a small nod. "Can you stop 1st Lieutenant Bennett? I really don't think that it is very clever to run Currahee so many times, especially not when it is raining." Jo shook her head but smiled at him. "I'm impressed Lieutenant, I am really impressed. Not only that you watched her the whole time, no, but you also only worry about the number of times she is running and the weather, but not about the fact that she is a woman and therefore weaker than you."

Surprised by her directness, Winters took a step back and waited, in hope for a better answer. "You won't receive any other answer. If you want to stop her, run and tell her, but I really hope for you that you don't do so, otherwise she is going to either kill you straight away or she'll make your life to hell. It's your choice." Winters nodded and then, to Jos surprise, started running towards Currahee.

"Oh god, Lieutenant that was definitely the wrong choice." She muttered to herself and finally left. She wasn't interested in seeing Donna react to Winters request, and didn't want to be the first person either of them would met.

Nearly at her shelter she met Nix again. "Have you seen Dick, I mean 2nd Lieutenant Winters?" He asked and looked at her suspiciously. "He just went to stop our 'old' friend from running Currahee." Nixons eyes widened when he realized what this meant. "Couldn't you have stopped him? He is just way to nice, god she will kill him." "I tried to, I really did." Jo responded and started walking towards her shelter again. The last thing she heard where some words spoken by Nixon in anger: "I remember the last time you tried something 'really' hard. It nearly killed me."

When Jo sat down on her bed, she pulled out the knife again, and waited. Donna would be defenseless, annoyed and totally out of it, so it was the best moment to finish everything. To finish her biggest nightmare, to finish the monster that had continued hiding under her bed for such a long time. The monster wouldn't even know what happened, and then it would all be over.

Although, Jo had always imagined the monster to have a painful death, this was the only way which would finish it fast. And being fast was more important, than being monstrous. "This will be the night everyone at home will speak of. The night, when I finished the monster, when I did revenge. They would celebrate if they'd knew what I am going to do. They would help me. Oh little Donna, oh poor little Donna, you didn't think that it would end so fast, didn't you? You thought that you would have many more years, but let me tell you something. You haven't. You took your last run, and you took it up Currahee. It was your own decision. We stand alone together, you remember? That's what it means, and this will be the words, you'll die with."

The fast footsteps outside which were coming towards the shelter let her interrupt her monologue and look at the door in expectation. But it wasn't Donna who appeared there it was Nixon, who firstly looked at the knife in surprise but fast got himself act together again. "Jo, stop playing with your knife and come. We've got a problem. A big problem."


	2. Promotion

„She became even worse." Luz muttered as they continued running up Currahee. 1st Lieutenant Bennett had just past him and Liebgott, shouting some very 'motivating' things about them being lazy girls which should have staid at home marrying Prince Charming. "I didn't think that this was possible, but yes, she did." Joe answered, starring angrily at the back of the head of the soldier running in front of him. Luz nodded in approval and finally asked loudly what everybody was thinking: "Do you think we could just kill her? I mean, it's not that hard to kill someone by accident."

They could see how 1st Lieutenant Bennett was now running in front of the group, still yelling things about them being little princesses. "God, I hate her." The soldier behind them muttered, and Liebgott and Luz, both surprised about this female voice, turned their heads to check whether this had been really 2nd Lieutenant Coleman or not. And indeed it was her running behind them. When she realized that they must have heard what she said she shrugged her shoulders and hissed "Don't look at me like that, just because she is the only female in this 'club' besides me, doesn't mean that I have to like her."

"But I wouldn't confess this that loud 2nd Lieutenant Coleman." 1st Lieutenant Bennett was now running next to them, smiling this horrible smile they had all felt on themselves, which makes your heart slow its beating and your soul feel like it has been put into the refrigerator. It was the kind of smile the archenemy of the hero would have, when the final game had started, when it seemed like the hero was lost and had to die. "We'll talk about this later." And then the 1st Lieutenant dropped back to Webster and Penkala to complain about their physical state.

"This will cause you much trouble." Liebgott remarked and earned a hit on the back of his head. "I'm only telling the truth." Another hit. "You're really aggressive, aren't you." The same answer. "Okay, okay, I see you have serious violence problem." But before he got get hit another time, 1st Lieutenant Bennett interrupted them. "2nd Lieutenant Coleman, hitting your fellow soldiers is no solution. This will have consequences." Liebgott was mentally already cheering about not getting into trouble, when the 1st Lieutenant "For both of you." added. "I hate her." He muttered in response, but luckily this time she didn't hear the insult.

"I really thought she'd be more careful after what happened on Currahee." Nixon muttered as he looked at Donna who sat on the other side of the mess. Jo snorted slightly and laughed. "Oh come on Nix, you 'hoped' she'd be more careful but you knew she wouldn't." The other Lieutenant shrugged his shoulders and looked back at his food. "Anyway, I hope nobody tells her what happened because I really don't want Dick to have trouble with her just because he was who he was." Jo nodded but had doubt in her eyes. "He's a lucky bastard nobody told her till now. Because as soon as somebody will he's a dead man. Or at least he'll suffer a lot more than he deserves. But if you ask me, somebody will tell her sooner or later. And if nobody does it freely she'll force someone to, and you know she can be pretty persuasive." Nix who had been watching her hand the whole time nodded and stood up. "You're probably right, but let me tell you something, killing your food with a fork won't make it taste better." And with those words he disappeared. "Yeah, thank you for that magnificent advice, Mr. Pointy-head." Jo muttered to herself and continued picking at her food. "I should have stopped this the last time we met, my friend. I should have stopped you. I should have stopped both of you." "2nd Lieutenant Coleman are you alright?" A voice interrupted her muttered monologue. Slowly, Jo raised her eyes to tell who took the liberty of talking to her in such a worried voice. To her surprise it was no other than Eugene Roe, that little medic who had taken care of Donna. "I'm fine, thank you soldier." He nodded and left her but couldn't help it and turned his head a last time just to see her picking her food again. Suddenly Roe bumped into someone. "I would watch out where you're going soldier. It seems like you still aren't able to walk properly. Maybe, running a bit would help you. Or I'll just let you clean some latrines. Or maybe..." Before 1st Lieutenant Bennett could make any further proposals she was interrupted by Nixon. "Or maybe you just leave him Sink wants to talk to you." Donna nodded and followed Nix to the barricade where Sink was waiting for them.

"Ahhh... 1st Lieutenant Bennett. You've done an extremely satisfying job with Easy company so far."

"They promoted her to CAPTAIN?" Luz asked with a mixture of despair and wonder. "You gotta be kidding me. What exactly did she do to get promoted? I mean besides from making the whole company hate her, and nearly killing some of us." Bill asked with less despair and more anger. "I don't know but I heard how Nixon told it Coleman and he was there so I'm quite sure there's no misunderstanding. But he also said that Winters was promoted to 1st Lieutenant. Plus, it's not like she's working against the company on purpose. She would treat anybody in this way, and you can't deny that without her we wouldn't be that fit." Malark tried to calm the waves but doing this made the ocean look even worse. "Are you defending her? Are you seriously defending her, Malark? What the fuck is wrong in your stupid Irish head? She, is most definitely the worst that could have happened to us. She, has done nothing good to Easy company. She, should have died up there on Currahee. Winters decisions may be right most of the time but when he carried her down here, he made a big mistake." Bill responded looking furiously at his fellow soldier. They looked at each other in anger and seemed very willingly to bandy right away. And they would have done it if the soft voice of discussed Captain wouldn't have interrupted them.

"What a pleasure to see that the bush telegraph is working so well. Malarkey, although I'm very flattered by your opinion of me, you should get in your PT gear as fast as possible because I want you to do 50 sit ups in 40 seconds. Which basically means that you've got 0,8 seconds per sit up which indicates that I'm in a very good mood. And by the way, the clock is ticking." With fear in his eyes Malarkey turned away and started running towards the barracks. Now the captain eyed Luz. "Luz, I'm deeply disappointed about your reaction towards my promotion but also very happy that this gives me the opportunity to see somebody run Currahee again. You know what you have to do." Luz left them at a smart pace as well. "Guarnere, we've got to talk. I'm sure you'll answer all of my question the best you can and won't lie to me, since this will have horrible consequences not only for you but for the whole company." "Of course, Ma'am." Donna nodded slightly and actually seemed like there was, for the first time, no need to worry when talking to her. "What exactly happened on Currahee?" "I'm sorry, Ma'am I don't understand the question." Guarnere responded with the most composure he could bring up. "Of course, I'll rephrase my question. When exactly should I have died on Currahee and what in God's name has Winters to do with it?" Bills eyes widened in shock before he got himself act together again. "Ma'am I'm quite sorry but there are authorities which don't allow me to tell you this." "Authorities which don't allow you to tell me this?" Donna asked and raised a eyebrow. "I'm quite sure those authorities won't mind if you tell me. And also, my dear Guarnere, you should think about the consequences your heroical talking might have. I could easily say that you didn't act for the purpose of the company , I could say even worse things, so, why don't you just tell me?" Guarnere who was rightfully considered as one of the toughest man of all those though man was clearly torn apart. "Ma'am, you may remember that day you ran Currahee three times in a row. Or, actually, you may not remember. But I can assure you you did, and it started to rain. And you wanted it to be even more difficulty, at least that's what everybody assumes, and didn't take the path which is already quite hard but you ran through the trees. And it was raining, as I said, and it seems like you slipped on some grass, and you fell down, but your head hit a stone and you were unconscious. And in this condition 1st Lieutenant Winters found you, and the rumor says that he carried you back to Doc Roe. That's all I know, ma'am." Donna nodded and smiled slightly. "And that's what you were afraid to tell me of? Well, whatever soldier, you can go now." Happy, and confused about the fact that nothing worse happened to him Bill turned around and left the captain stand there in silence.

Sometimes, it seems like the tense in a room is visible. The air seems to crackle, the looks the people give each other are full of emotions. Those emotions depend on the situation but they are nearly always extremely visible. Such a tense arises when a big event is going to happen, or has already happened. And it's hard to break. Jo and Nix were looking at each other with fear, regret and pity. The thing that wasn't supposed to happen, had happened. Donna, knew what had happened.

"Do you think we should warn Dick?" Nixon broke the silence, which often comes with such an among of tense. Jo opened her mouth to say the word she knew Lew wouldn't like but before any sound could escape it they were interrupted by the person they were trying to help. "Warn of what?" The new promoted 1st Lieutenant asked and sat down on a chair. "I suppose there is no point in lying so, Donna knows what you did that day on Currahee, Guarnere told her." Winters nodded, waiting for further explanation. But there was none. "And why exactly did you want to warn me? I mean, what is she going to do about it, and why should she do something anyway?" Jo and Nix looked at each other till the former gave a slight nod. "Well, Dick, Donna is, how shall I put it, very hard with herself and is vigilant about her reputation. And this incident up there won't be what she wants to be known for. And the point is" Suddenly, he was interrupted by the door which crashed into the wall with a sound of exploding trees. "The point is that my dear friends are worried about the fact that I might focus all my hate on you because you are one of the main reasons that my reputation isn't as pleasing as it was before. But, you know what, I won't. It's true that I'm not happy about the situation but I won't project my feelings on you. It wasn't your fault and I'm actually very thankful for what you did." Donna finished the sentence Nixon had started with words neither him nor Jo had ever heard before out of her mouth. Words as gentle as thankful usually didn't belong to her thesaurus. But before either of them could say anything captain had already left them again and Winters looked at them smiling. "You see, no need to worry. She's really not as bad as you two always make her seem to be." "You've got no idea how bad she actually is." Jo responded and left the room slowly, deep in thoughts.

"We're getting a new officer." Winters said after the two men had been sitting there in silence for a while. "Uh-huh." Was the only reaction he got from his best friend. "Is there anything else you want to say about this?" The red-haired man asked slightly annoyed. "No, not really. New officer. Okay. Noted." The black-haired answered, staring at the floor. "What has happened between you and those women, Nix?" The 1st Lieutenant now asked directly since it seemed like the other man would never talk about it if not forced to do so. "We lived next to each other in Montecito. Donna and I attended the Santa Barbara school together. We, well, we were dating. Jo always wanted to be with us. She considered us as the 'cool' ones. It was actually a bit annoying. We broke up, I went to Yale. End of the story." Nix answered still staring at the floor. Winters had listened to this short but interesting story with a expression constantly changing between surprise and relief. He had expected much worse than this little story. "So, you and Captain Bennett were dating? That was not what I expected to hear. And you three were all living next to each other?" Nixon nodded but at the same time shook his head. "Well, Donna and Jo lived together. They are sisters." And with those words he was the last one of the Montecito-trio to leave the room with a sentence made to destroy every logic someone could have seen in this whole affair. Winters watched his friend leave before he took his turn in staring at the floor.

The silence that follows the tense is probably even worse. Because the silence that follows is always made of pain, the silence is the result of a parting. After a tense like this, a tense made to destroy something, someone is left behind. If not everybody.

The train to nowhere was quite a nice place if you ignored the fact that some people only wanted to kill each other. It seemed indeed like although Donna didn't show any negative feelings towards Winters as everyone expected she wanted to see the rest of the company suffer as hell. Joanne gave her looks that if looks could kill would have killed her, and Nix just seemed completely torn between giving both of them angry looks or trying to calm at least one of them down. But both things were pretty hard to accomplish since Jo was sitting next to him, so that he couldn't look at her all of the time in an angry way, and moreover was Harry Welsh sitting opposite to him sleeping which limited his possibilities of just shouting at them angrily.

"I suppose you know where we're going, Nix?" Donna asked in an attempt to break this uncomfortable silence. "Yeah, I actually do. But you know that I can't tell ya." Donna nodded and gave Harry a jealous look. "I wish I could sleep like this. But unfortunately I'm afraid someones going to kill me if I do so." With a small smile towards Jo she closed her eyes anyway. "Oh come one Donna, I would never kill you in front of dear Lewis. Or slit your throat while Dick is watching since it seems like you see something in him you didn't see in anybody else. And risking to wake up Harry just to hear you scream in pain, I beg your pardon." Jo snapped back which had as only result that Donna opened her eyes again and looked at her angrily. "Since when do you care about the feelings of others? As far as I can remember you never cared about what anybody else felt." Jo slowly stood up and snorted. "Why should I have cared about you. You and your stupid boyfriend never cared about me either, so why should I care?" The last word wasn't spoken but screamed and before one of the male officers could have done anything the two women were lying on the floor of the train beating each other.

After they had finally separated the two, Winters and Nixon looked at them even angrier than the women had looked at each other. "Do you two really think this is the way the commander and a platoon leader of the company should behave? Have you even thought about the consequences this will have? You two, are supposed to lead those men into war, and all you can think about is fighting with each other. If they ever respected you they clearly stopped now. Or would you trust people that they'll lead you properly if they don't even trust each other?" The 2nd Lieutenant asked with his face close to Donna's. In this moment, with his face so close to hers, he recognized two things he never saw before: the broken expression in her eyes, and the glance of a tear right below her left eye. But this moment of recognition was as short as the time a tear needs to dry.

"I don't see the point of your worry. It's not your problem that they won't trust us. Because you two are the perfect leaders, aren't you?" She hissed in response, spitting on Nixon's face. With sadness in his eyes he turned away, and looked questioningly at the 1st Lieutenant. Winters shrugged with his shoulders before he, with visible efforts, explained: "We won't tell anybody about this incident as long as you can promise us to not get into a fight again. If that's to much to ask for we, or at least I, will tell your superiors what has happened." The women glanced at each other quickly before nodding slightly in agreement. Winters turned around and left the room, they had dragged Donna and Jo in, muttering: "I'm only doing this for you, Lew."

For a moment, the three remaining officers looked at each other bewildered. It wasn't even the near past that confused them so much, it was the time since then. It was what had happened after there last goodbyes that confused, and moreover, scared them. Slowly, Nixon sat down on the floor and started shacking his head. "What has happened between you two? What has happened that makes you hate each other so much?"


End file.
